The Tragic Approach of Zaí (continued)
by Vargovi83
Summary: Continued from BarfireBanshee177's The Tragic Approach of Zaí, I waited 4 years for a continuation and never got it. Well time's up, I'm pitching my two cents. I do not own Ruby Gloom or any of its characters.
1. Saying Goodbye

Chapter 3: Saying Goodbye

After exiting the train and grabbing my luggage I stayed as close to Skull Boy as I could. Skull Boy told me that a trolley would take us to the mansion, it arrived less than 5 minutes later. I hopped on and took my seat across from Skull Boy.

"Are you ready?" he asked,

"Ready as I'll ever be" I replied.

As the trolley started out I took one last glance at the train, knowing that everything I had ever knew was now gone forever. I took a deep breath in, and understood that my parents knew this was for my own good, now that I'm the only one who'll carry on our family's name.

And somehow I felt my siblings presence, like Zoë and Zola were smiling down on me from above, wishing me all the best as I continued into the journey that would be my new life in Gloomsville.

As the train faded off into the distance, I sighed and looked back up at Skull Boy.

"I'm guessing that this whole witch epidemic hasn't been going well" he asked.

"Pretty much the opposite" I replied. "It's kind of a long story".

"I like long stories" you can tell me, unless you feel uncomfortable talking about it" he said nervously.

"Well...ok" I replied.

 _(One Tragic Backstory Later)_

 _..._ and that's when I heard you come into the car." finishing my tale.

"Oh, that's awful" Skull Boy looked shocked, as if he'd never heard anything so terrible in his life.

"Don't worry," I replied, "I'm ready to start the next chapter in the book of my life".

"That's a great attitude to have" he added, "Speaking of new chapters, look where we are".

I looked outside and saw a large 16th century Victorian mansion with windows shaped like skulls and a heart with crossbones through it, "odd choice" I thought to myself. It also included a very small narrow house alongside it, and an attached garage to the right. Down the hill from the house there was a graveyard (gee, that's always a good sign).

The sky was overcast, full of dark unfriendly clouds and I know that a lot of people say that the grass is always greener on the other side, well this grass was PURPLE!, I'm not kidding, bright purple grass.

Me and Skull Boy made our way through the scenery, until we arrived at the front door.

"Nervous?" he asked.

"Excited," I replied anxiously.

Skull Boy rang the doorbell, the door began to open, and I felt pride, my new life with my new family was ready to begin...


	2. Gloomsville Manor, Population: 10

Chapter 4: Gloomsville Manor, Population: 10

The door opened up and a girl with red hair stood there.

"Hey Ruby, we're back" Skull Boy said.

"Glad to hear it, Skull Boy" Ruby replied before turning to me. "And this must be our guest" she said looking to me "you must be Zaí, we've been expecting you ever since we got the call from your dad, come on in."

I entered a large room with a small parlour with a fireplace, two red chairs and a yellow pillow between them with a little black cat lying on it.

"I'm Ruby" Ruby said extending her hand to me, which I took, "We heard about the big war, and we're glad to have you here". "Thank you, it means a lot" I replied.

I then walked over to the cat in the parlour. "That's Doom" Ruby said, "She's friendly". I bent down and extended my hand towards her, Doom walked up to my hand and snuggled against me in a cute way. "Aww..aren't you a sweet little kitty" I cooed.

"Aww, she likes you already!" Ruby cooed, "Usually Doom is pretty suspicious of new faces, but her intuition is never wrong so if she trusts you, then that means you're one of us".

I was surprised how open and caring these people were, and I couldn't wait until I was settled in, my question was answered for me seconds later.

"Well Ruby, I think Zaí here is exhausted from her escapade" Skull Boy chimed in.

"Good point Skull Boy," Ruby added, Zaí your room is the third door on your right once you get upstairs, do you need me to show you?" she asked.

"I think I can find it," I replied "Thank you for your help."

"No trouble at all, we'll give you a bit to get settled." Ruby finished before I made my way upstairs following the directions I had been given.

I arrived at the third door on the right and entered, it was a decent sized room with a high ceiling, and the only furniture in there was a bed that looked fairly comfortable, remembering my bed beck home was dingy, stained and had a spring or two loose, a dresser on the left side of the bed, with a small shaded lamp on top and a black metal coatrack, The only other addition was a small window on the right side of the bed, I thought that I could open if I ever feel hot.

I threw my bag on the bed and started to unpack. About 5 minutes later I had put all of my clothes in my new dresser, and a small framed photo of my old family right in front of the lamp. I then flopped onto the bed. It felt comfortable and the quilt was soft and fluffy, it was like heaven! I then took of my green jacket that I had worn throughout my journey and hung it on the coatrack, now just wearing the dark gray T-shirt and skinny jeans with my black low-top Chuck Taylor's. I ran my fingers through my long brown hair and sat down on the bed once more and for the first time since my parents split, I felt happiness.


	3. 1 Eye, Z and I

Chapter 5: 1 Eye, Z and I

I rubbed my empty left eye socket which I had lost due to Zora, my former best friend in the world, betrayed our kind, and when I foolishly tried to help her, she stabbed my eye with a switchblade and pulled it out of my skull, severing the optic nerve... and crushing it under her foot. From that day on my depth perception had gone down through the floor. she broke my heart, literally! She pulled my unbeating heart out of my chest and ate it, right in front of me.

I still had the hole in my chest to prove it, it's a good thing I kept flies away, or else I'd have maggots swarming around my open wounds trying to devour the rest of my rotting green flesh. I know you're probably wondering why all zombies names start with "Z", well, that just how it works, all zombies names start with "Z", my parents names are Zenon and Zerelda.

This is why I don't like talking about my past because there's nothing good to talk about.

I decided that was enough alone time, so I left the room and decided to explore my new home a little more. I made my way down the hallway until I bumped into someone and fell backwards.

"Oops, sorry" the voice said, "are you alright?".

I looked up and I saw a girl with long black hair who only had one eye, she also had springs on her feet.

"I'm Ok" I answered politely.

"I haven't seen you around before" she said, helping me to my feet. "I'm new" I replied.

"Oh! you must be Zaí, the new girl, Ruby told us that you were coming to live with us, my names Iris, glad that you're here" she finished shaking my hand.

"Thank you, it's a pleasure to meet you too" I replied, remembering Skull Boy had told me about Iris, and how she liked to pull people into her adventures.

"I can't wait for you to get acquainted with everyone and explore, all the fun stuff here makes this place the most fun place to live" Iris finished.

"I can hardly wait either" I replied with a sense of nervousness in my voice.

"Oh, cool we're twins!" Iris said excitedly, "how so?" I asked. "We both have only one eye" "I guess you're right" I said feeling my empty eye socket. My face really wasn't that pretty, although you could argue that I was 'drop dead gorgeous (rimshot)'.

"Y'know I think we're gonna be great friends don't you?" Iris asked.

"Sure do" I replied happily.

"Although, if I were you I'd probably want to cover up that hole" she said, referencing my eye. "You should get an eyepatch for it" she suggested. "Ooh, I bet Misery would have one you could borrow."

Misery, I heard about her, "Ok, great" I replied. "Do you know where I can find her?" I asked politely.

"Go downstairs and knock on the door with the bars, that's Misery's room she should be down there", Iris kindly responded. "I'll see you around, Ok?, welcome to our home." Iris said before bouncing off.

I was surprised by how much these people cared about me, a stranger shows up at their house and just like that I'm part of their family.

I began to make my way downstairs.


	4. Misery Loves Medical Supplies

Chapter 6: Misery Loves Medical Supplies

I made my way down to the basement and knocked on the gate, "Come in" a voice called. I entered and sitting on a bed of nails, I saw a banshee with eyes stained with tears, I had a feeling this was... "Misery" I asked her. "That's me" she replied.

She looked so elegant and sensitive, I felt that she was going to be a great friend to me already. "I'm Zaí", I told her. "Oh yeah, you're the new girl whose lucky enough to be escaping from a war", Misery stated.

"How is that lucky?!" I replied, a little too loud.

"You no longer have to live in a war torn city full of people being slaughtered and massacred." she finished.

I thought about what she said and finally realized how lucky I was, the witches were probably murdering zombies as we spoke!

"By the way..how can they kill you if your zombies? How can you die if you're already dead?" Misery asked quizzically.

"Well, we're not 'dead' so to speak, we're 'undead' so I'm as alive as you or anyone else in this mansion, but the witches use their wicked spells to blow us up, crush or bodies, burn us alive, melt us, or disintegrate our skeleton, reducing the dead zombies to dust in the wind" I finished.

"That makes sense" Misery said, content with my explanation.

"Oh would you happen to have an eyepatch you could spare?" I asked nervously. "Sure" she said, going over to a drawer, pulling out a first-aid kit and pulling out a black eyepatch.

"Keep it, I insist, I've got 763 more of them".

I put it on and looked in a mirror, "I like it" I said. "Great," Misery said before the mirror shattered out of nowhere.

"Oops" she said halfhearted.

"While I'm down here, you wouldn't happen to have something to cover this?" I lifted up my shirt and showed Misery the hole where my heart had been torn out.

"Wow!" she gasped.

"It's a long story, I need something to cover it up before flies come, lay eggs and their maggots eat away at my flesh."

"I think I have the perfect solution" Misery said, grabbing a white gauze patch and sticking it on the wound, completely covering it up.

"Thank you" I said.

"Anytime, my skin isn't rotting so I wouldn't know, tee hee hee" Misery told me, even giving a cute giggle and a smile.

"I think you and I are gonna get along just fine" I said joyfully.


	5. Brothers Who Love to Rock

Chapter 7: Brothers Love to Rock

After getting all my injuries tended to, I walked back upstairs after politely seeing Misery off. Until I heard loud music coming from outside. I rushed out and heard it coming from the garage.

I know it wasn't polite to intrude, so I knocked on the door, but the music was so loud they couldn't even hear me. "Hello" I yelled over the music knocking louder. It's hard to talk to people when there's noise, especially when they're making a lot of noise themselves.

Finally the music stopped and I heard a male voice say "Come in", I entered and saw what looked to be two boys with one body. One was blue with a pompadour and the other was green with normal hair, both black.

"Umm..hi, my name is Zaí" I said.

"Zaí...Zaí...Oh right, the new girl, how's it hanging? I'm Frank" the blue one explained. "This is Len" he referenced to his green skinned twin.

"I heard about you" Len answered. "Totally verbose about that war."

"Bummer" Frank added.

"Does everyone know about the war." I wondered.

"Pretty much" Frank answered. "Hey, you wanna hear our new song to get your mind off it?" he asked.

"Ok"

Frank and Len started wailing away on their black guitar with barbed strings and RIP written across the front, throwing off some epic riffs and shaking the entire garage, until they finished off with a slide.

"That was awesome!" I screamed in pure excitement.

"Glad you liked it Zaí, all we need is some lyrics and it'll be ready for the public" Frank said.

"Well I can't wait to hear it, rock on, guys!" I said walking out of the garage.

"Call me wht you may Len, butI think she's one rockin' doll" Frank said.

"Doll? I thought she was a zombie?" Len misunderstood.

"Len, it's just an expression" Frank said.

"Expression of what?, what happened to the doll? Why am I always the last to know about these things?!"

Frank slapped himself on the forehead in exasperation, "Never mind Len, you're just not getting it."


	6. Poe, the Educated Crow

Chapter 8: Poe, the Educated Crow

After seeing off my new rock and roll bros, I turned my attention towards a very small narrow house near an old tree beside the house, I approached it and knocked on the door.

"Enter" an male upper class English accent answered.

I entered per the instructions given, and saw a crow wearing a top hat and a monocle.

"I am Poe" he said dramatically, extended his hand..NO wing to me.

"Pleasure" I answered shaking it "I'm Zaí".

"Oh splendid! Ruby informed me of your arrival, would you care for a cup of tea?" he asked.

"That'd be great" I answered politely. I could already tell that Poe was the only adult that occupied the mansion, and he was an upperclass English man..I MEAN crow.

After I got my tea, Poe struck up a conversation. "Did I ever tell you about the time I achieved the highest honour Oxford University ever had to offer?"

"How could you? You just met me today". I reminded him.

That made him chortle, me too...

"Well I once owned a hand towel that shall remain nameless due to a pending lawsuit..."

(2 Hours Later)

During Poe's story I had enough time to finish 3 FULL cups of tea!, I added the occasional "interesting" or "you don't say". Poe sure knew how to talk, but a trait we share is that he and I are both polite and well mannered, so you could imagine I couldn't have stopped him. Heck, before today I didn't even know towels could even file lawsuits!

When he had finally concluded his epic, I responded with "Wow, that was great".

"You liked it?, oh smashing" Poe responded "Reminds me of a time when Scaredy came to me and.." I cut him off.

"Scaredy?" I questioned.

"Oh you must not have met him yet?"

"Do you know where I can find him?" I asked.

After Poe gave me some directions I thanked him and headed off to meet my final new housemate.


	7. Little Bat of Horrorskinda

Chapter 9: Little Bat of Horrors

...kinda.

After searching the rest of the outside, I saw a green hammock, and in it a small black bat with a purple scarf holding a book and a bag of what looked to be mosquitos?

I walked up to him and said "Hello".

This made him jump, scream and nearly fall out of his hammock.

"Oops, sorry didn't mean to startle you" I apologized.

"Oh, well that's quite alright, I am Scaredy Bat" he spoke in an Indian accent.

"I'm Zaí, I'm new here".

"Of course Zaí, Ruby informed me of your arrival, and I can only imagine the horrors that you have been plagued with" Scaredy responded.

"Yeah, it was pretty bad" I said sitting down with him "My folks sent me here so that I could live a happy life, and I'll admit you and your friends have treated me pretty well for a stranger".

"Well, you should thank Ruby when she received the call from your father saying you needed our help, she would stop at nothing." Scaredy responded.

I was in shock, never before had I had someone to go out of their way to save me before. At that moment I knew where I belonged, this was my life and I was gonna live it as best I could.

"You're right Scaredy, I'll thank Ruby for everything next time I see her."

With that I bid Scaredy adieu and let him return to his novel, I re-entered the house and noticed there was one roommate I had met, but I didn't get to know him yet.


	8. Feign and Fortune

Chapter 10: Feign and Fortune

I felt like a new zombie, i had an eyepatch and a patch of gauze, still didn't have a nose or a heart or 2 eyes anymore, but that wasn't the point. I felt like the world was my oyster. I then remembered Skull Boy who had introduced me to my new life, (call it a hunch, but I think his room was the one with the skull shaped window) I made my way upstairs and knocked on his door. "Come in" a voice answered.

Skull Boy's room was large with a telescope going through his enormous skull shaped window and then I looked he had a large number of books and a coffin shaped bed (I heard of sleep like death but I think that's pushing the envelope a little too much).

"Hey Skull Boy,

"Oh hey Zaí how's it going, have you met everyone yet?"

"Sure have: you, Ruby, Doom, Iris, Misery, Frank, Len, Poe and Scaredy. I think I made a good first impression on everyone."

"Cool" he said shuffling a deck of cards. "Uhh..whatcha got there?" I asked.

"Oh these are tarot cards, they're for predicting the future, I think that I must come from a long line of mystics and fortune tellers."

"Wow, does it really work?"

"Well, I haven't exactly tested it out yet" he said sheepishly.

"Can you test it out on me?"

"Primo suggestion Zaí!" He exclaimed.

He layed the deck on a small table and spread them out. I sat down. "Ok" he said in a mysterious voice.

"Pick up 3 cards of your choosing and the future will become clear to you, then it ever has before."

I followed his instructions.

"Now let us see what the future holds for you." The first card portrayed a man running away from an onslaught of shadowy figures. "My my, I sense that your past will come back to haunt you." I hoped that didn't mean having to face the witches. The second card was much more positive, it portrayed a girl with a golden question mark above her head. "It asseems as though you will come face to face with the greatest question you'll ever confront." I had no clue what that could be and on the final card portrayed two people hugging "And finally, after a chain of misfortune you will find what you have sought for, acceptance."

"Wow" I said bewildered "And do you think that might actually happen to me?"

"Well, it's not 100% but it's widely known that tarot cards never lie."

"Well, thanks Skull Boy, I think that's really cool, but if it's ok with you I need to go thank Ruby for letting me come here."

"Yeah, of course, Ruby always looks out for all of us" he said blushing a little "I mean.. uhh..she's a pretty good friend, yeah." He panicked and giggled nervously.

"Alright, see you later."

"See ya." I could tell that Skull Boy liked Ruby more than a friend, he did a pretty lousy job of hiding it.


	9. The Happiest Girl in the World

Chapter 11: The Happiest Girl in the World

I walked down to Ruby's bedroom which had a heart shaped door (man, this girl loves hearts) and knocked on it. "It's open" Ruby called. I entered into a nice looking room with a canopy bed and a swing. Ruby and Doom were in there. Ruby was knitting something (a scarf if I had to guess) and Doom was curled up at the foot of the bed.

"Oh hey Zaí, what's up?" Ruby said.

"Hey Ruby, I just wanted to thank you for letting me stay here with you."

"Oh well you're very welcome, happy to help."

"That's it" I responded back sounding inspired.

"What's it?" she asked back, awaking Doom from her slumber.

"All my life, I've never had anyone treat me so warmly before, I mean, you hear about my situation and you made it your top priority to make sure that I could be safe. Also, I know that I may have been acting like nothing bothers me, when in reality...I'm terrified of what's to come."

"Terrified?" she answered in an almost alarmed way. "If you don't mind me asking how so?"

"Well my life started badly when I lost my nose when I was 2, and I was the middle child of my family so my parents didn't really care for me as much as my siblings. What's worse my people were sent into war when I was 7. My parents split up by my 11th birthday, and the biggest nail in my coffin came when my best friend betrayed our kind, nailing it in by literally ripping out my heart and my eye, and finally less than two weeks ago I lost my brother and sister to the witches."

Ruby was in disbelief, she looked horrified of what I had gone through.

"Oh my goodness, Zaí I am so sorry, I had no idea how long you've been in havoc." She said consoling me. Doom joined us and was visibly upset, she jumped onto my lap and snuggled my chest.

"Awww, Doom feels sad for you too" Ruby cooed.

"Awww, thank you Doom, I guess that cheers me up a little bit." Doom then brushed her nose up to where mine used to be, I loved the little kitty and how sweet she was.

"Well don't you worry Zaí, you're one of us now and we never abandon one of our own, and tomorrow we're all gonna show you."

The instant she said tomorrow I realized I hadn't been keeping track of time, looking outside to see that the clouds had left and it was now night.

"What time is it?" I asked.

"Almost 10, I don't know about you but I think Doom and I are gonna get some Z's" she responded.

"I think I'll prolly be doing the same."

"Ok, then" she said as I got off of the bed and exited through her door."

"Goodnight Zaí"

"Goodnight Ruby"

"Oh and Zaí?, Welcome to our family." she finished before closing the door.

I was in shock, I wasn't alone anymore, I'd never be lonely again, I had found my place in the world, where I fit in, where I belonged...

I headed back to my room and removed my clothes, exchanging them for a white T-shirt with a logo on it that I didn't even care about, and a pair of pink short shorts that didn't even go halfway down my thigh. I tucked myself under the warm covers and turned off my lamp. Then I looked at the picture of my old family and told them "Don't worry about me, I'm safe, because I'm where I need to be." even though they weren't with me, I could feel their presence. Like my siblings were smiling down at me from Heaven and my parents were thinking of me as they fought off the hoards of witches. I finally closed my eyes and drifted away into a peaceful slumber.


	10. Morning Bore-y

Chapter 12: Morning Bore-y

I awoke myself at 7:16 and stretched out my arms, I was never a morning person but I was now. I didn't know what my next step would be. I opened up my small window and took a deep breath of the fresh air, the sky was overcast by dark clouds as it had been yesterday, yet it kept me wondering how is it that's the weather is cloudy every day, but completely clear at night? I decided not to dwell on it so long as I probably wouldn't get an answer.

I then proceeded to the bathroom and looked at myself in the mirror, while I looked drop-dead gorgeous (rimshot) I didn't exactly look to clean, so I decided to hop in the shower to attempt to scrub away the

After about 12 minutes I came out feeling like a fresh rose. I wrapped a towel around my figure and saw that my skin was now clean and smooth (even though it was still green and continually rotting off my bones) even my hair looked good, so I brushed and blow dried my brown hair and tied it into a ponytail (which I think looked more my style).

Afterward, I went back to my room and redressed myself in a new more relaxed outfit.

A silk orange halter top with some light gray skinny jeans paired with my casual high tops.

After dressing myself I remembered that Ruby told me last night that today she would show me how I fit in here. I then made

my way downstairs where I was greeted by a...

SURPRISE! Welcome to our home Zaí!

I was in shock all 9 of my new housemates were standing there greeting me with party hats and noisemakers. Not to mention a large platter of fluffy pancakes drizzled with maple syrup and with whipped butter on top. How did they possibly have known that's exactly how I liked my pancakes?!

"W-w-whats all of this?" I managed to choke out.

"Remember last night when I told you how I was going to show you how you fit in here?" Ruby told me.

"Yeah"

"Well Ruby told the rest of us and we organized an official honorary welcome for you" Skull Boy added.

I was in shock these people were beyond a shadow of a doubt the most generous, selfless and accepting group of people I had ever met, I fought back tears of joy.

"You guys, this is...this is just.." I couldn't find the right words.

"You're welcome" Frank finished for me.

After thanking everyone individually I dug into my large platter of flapjacks which ended up tasting like heaven.

After finishing up I left the kitchen and began to ponder what Skull Boy had told me.

That I was gonna find my destiny and where I belonged or something. I couldn't remember all of it so I decided to come back to it later.

Then I bumped into someone.


	11. Outlandish Antics of a Most Inauspicious

Chapter 13: Outlandish Antics of a Most Inauspicious Nature

"Hey Zaí!" Iris said.

"Oh hey Iris what's up?" I asked her as she was carrying some goggles...or goggle?...they only had one eye so...Oh forget it!

"I was just about to go flying? Wanna come?"

I remembered Skull Boy warned me about Iris pulling people into her adventures but how could I know whether I liked them or not if I didn't try?

"Sure, sounds like fun" I replied.

"Great, follow me!" she said heading for the door. I wondered if I would regret this decision or not, oh well, guess I'll find out soon enough.

As soon as we got outside, Iris lead me to a large black and red flying worm.

"Zaí, I'd like you to meet Squig, he's super fun." Iris explained.

"I didn't know worms could fly or be that big" I said half in shock.

"Me neither but it's better not to question it, so, wanna go for a ride?" she asked me.

"Sure, why not" I responded, I knew I was probably asking for trouble but since arriving here I haven't had any excitement. Well back home I had some, but I don't think fighting for your life against witches counts as enjoyable fun. So I climbed up on Squig.

"Any instructions I need to hear?" I said quizzically as I sat behind Iris.

"Just hold onto me, it might be a bumpy ride, you ready?"

I took a deep breath and swallowed my fear "Ready".

We took off rising into the sky "Hold on tight" I heard Iris say, I followed her instructions, then we zoomed away into the sky.

At first I was a little nervous and I had my eye closed as we ascended, but as we got higher up I thought about how I should conquer my fear. I slowly opened my eyes and saw the most beautiful view I have ever fathomed.

We were above the clouds with the sky was clear, I hafta say it was breathtaking to say the least. For the first time in almost a decade I felt free.

"This is amazing!" I said to Iris.

"I know right, when I'm up here I dont even feel the wind, I just feel...

"Alive?" I assumed.

"Yeah, how'd you guess?"

"Let's just say it's a certain feeling I haven't felt for a long time".

Iris looked concerned for me, then her face lit up like a bioluminescent jellyfish, "well I think I know how to help with that, hi-ho Squig!" Squig then began to do some aeriel loop-de-loops and barrel rolls, I held on tight but I no longer felt afraid, as a matter of fact even I began to smile and laugh as I found it dare I say, Exhilirating!

After a good solid flight, Iris landed Squig back beside the house.

"Thanks, I needed that" I answered honestly.

"No problem, if you wanna go again, just ask." Iris answered sincerely.

"If I ever feel bored, you'll be my first choice" I finished.

"Sounds great, catch ya later Zaí!" Iris said before taking off once more into the sky. I decided I needed a bit of down time after that rush so I headed back inside.

I knew Skull Boy had warned me about Iris' antics but given how long I had gone without any leisure I think I had now grown a deep and lasting degree of respet for Iris, and somehow I could tell that she felt the same.


	12. R&R Rest & Restitution

Chapter 14: R&R Rest & Restitution

 _(Warning: minor breach of the 4th wall ahead)_

I was feeling good, I had built stronger relationships with Ruby, Poe, Skull Boy and now Iris. However, I couldn't wait to rub Skull Boys face in the fact that I actually enjoyed Iris' thrill-seeking way of life, and I had a feeling he was apprehensive when talking about Ruby for more than one reason. But I'd have to inquire about that later, right now I had some serious R&R to attend to.

I headed upstairs to my room where I collapsed horizontally on my soft quilt. "Aaahh" I sighed relaxed. After chilling out for a good solid half hour I began to ponder my past once again...

First and foremost, I haven't been entirely truthful with you. My best friend who betrayed me wasn't a zombie, she was a witch.

Also her name wasn't Zora, I just said that to throw you off the trail. Her real name was DeDe, she and I were pretty much inseparable in our younger and more vulnerable years, but when she turned 9 everything changed. You see, witches arent born evil and blood thirsty, the first few years of their life they are pretty normal. But once DeDe turned 9 her instincts suddenly clicked and becomes an urge that she couldn't fight who she was anymore. Hence, she ended our friendship, betrayed me, stabbing out my eye and the crème de la crème itself, eating my heart

...while I watched...crying...blood.

DeDe's betrayal hit me big time, it made me aware that the world can be a cruel place and sometimes innocent, well-adjusted people get hit hard for no reason. But now I know better, just because selfish, cruel people exist doesn't mean that I have to be involved with them, I have a choice, a choice to find a safe home here in Gloomsville, full of the most wonderful characters anyone would ever be lucky to be with.

Now that I got that off my chest, I thought maybe now would be a good time to see what Frank and Len were up to. I got up, rushed out of the room, closing my door and hurrying off to find them.

(Apologies for the short chapter readers, but I'm getting closer to a dramatic shift, stay tuned.)


	13. The Heart Blushes Crimson

Chapter 15: The Heart Blushes Crimson

I made haste hurrying down the stairs and into the kitchen where I found Ruby busy working on some kind of dessert.

"Oh hey Ruby!" I said.

"Hey Zaí, what's up?"

I thought for a moment and decided to mess with Ruby a little bit by asking her how she feels about Skull Boy. Since I could see right through Skull Boys attempts to deny it, I wondered if Ruby would do the same.

"Not much, just gonna go check and see what Frank and Len are up to, and while I'm here I was hoping I could ask you something?" I rattled off faster than I wanted to, but slow enough that she could understand what I was spouting.

"Sure, go ahead." she said unaware of what I was scheming.

"Ok, how do you feel about Skull Boy?" I asked suggestively.

As soon as I said his name she froze in place and nearly dropped the spatula she was holding. I was expecting it so I stood by.

"Sk-sk-skull B-b-b-boy?" she managed to stutter out.

I stood there with a smug grin on my face awaiting her response. She eventually did answer blushing through all of it.

"W-w-well he's uuuhhh really great friend, yeah he's nice and funny and uhh..dreamy.." she stopped when she realized she said that last part out loud.

"Did you say dreamy?" I asked suggestively.

"No, no I said uhhhh...creamy, yes this icing needs to be a lot more uh.. creamy" she rubbed the back of her head and she could tell I wasn't buying it. So I answered for her.

"No more rambling girl, spill you like Skull Boy don't you? and not just as a friend, dare I say love?"

At this point Ruby's face had turned as red as a cherry and it looked like she was about to explode. Finally she caved in.

"Ok, yes I love him, I've been in love with him for years but I've just been so afraid to tell him". She finished sincerely.

"I knew it" I said smugly, "you did a really bad job of hiding it, no offence."

"Weird, no one else was able to decipher it." she said.

"Well, I'm really good at reading peoples expressions and body language."

Ruby gave me a confused look.

"When you're raised as the middle child in a broken home ravaged by a war, you either learn how to read people or you die." I explained.

"Oh" she responded.

"And can I let you in on something? cuz it might just blow your mind."

"I guess so" she said semi-unconvinced that I wasn't onto her.

"Ok...when I was with Skull Boy earlier I could feel he was hiding something from me, and he got nervous whenever he talked about you...and I think he's got a crush on you too."

Ruby froze up. Almost like she couldn't believe it. She quivered before finally responding with her eyes welling up.

"R-r-really?" she said hopefully. "He loves me too?"

"You know it girl, you two are made for each other. You should tell him."

"I want to tell him, I just get so nervous."

"Well don't worry, I'll help you, besides now we know he feels the same way, so he'll say yes no matter what." I finished.

Ruby was so touched she ran up to me like a bolt of lightning and tackled me with a hug. I was surprised but I decided to wrap my arms around her.

"Thank you Zaí" she answered emotionally, "if you hadn't come here I would've never beeen able to be brave enough to tell Skull Boy how I feel, but now I think I finally have the confidence to do that." she finished sincerely.

I felt pride in that moment, knowing that now Ruby had confidence to no longer hide her feelings for Skull Boy after repressing them for however many years.

"No problem, let me know when you want to do it, Ok?"

"Sure, sounds great, thank you Zaí!" she called out as

i exited the kitchen and made my way out to the backyard. Proud of the way that I had just helped my new friend.


	14. The Heat Thickens

Chapter 16: The Heat Thickens

 _(Warning: this chapter contains some very gory graphic content Rated PG-13)_

I made my way out of the house and walked through the purple grass towards the garage, I passed by Scaredy who was in his hammock reading his novel and eating mosquitoes, I thought about saying hello but I didn't want to frighten him again so I just silently waved, he waved back after glancing up at hearing my footsteps before returning to his novel.

I made it to the garage and knocked on the door. "Come in!" I heard Frank's voice call, I entered the garage Frank and Len were seated on their green sofa, Len was asleep.

"Hey guys" I said.

"What's up Zaí?" Frank asked.

"Just helped out Ruby with a little confidence issue she's been repressing" I thought about what I was saying and kept the reasons classified.

"You mean the way she feels about Skull Boy?".

Never mind.

"You know about how she feels about Skull Boy too?" I responded half-surprised.

"Mm-hmm, ever since Len and I tried to get into the heads of our friends so we could write songs about them, we found out that Ruby 'likes' Skull Boy in more ways than one." Frank finished off making air quotations on the word 'likes'.

"What's going on with Len anyway?" I asked curious about his motionless state.

"Oh right, with dicephalic twins like us, whenever one of us wants a bit of privacy the other one can go into a kind of hibernation and fall into a temporary slumber." Frank finished off.

"Well if that's the case you wanna hang out?" I asked calmly.

"Sounds great" he said getting off the sofa "I know a quaint little spot we can go." he suggested. "Right on" I responded.

We walked through the purple grassy yard to a tree where we climbed up on one of the branches facing the house. (The same one Frank and Len used in Ruby Cubed)

"Wowee zow" I said admiring the view.

"Yep, I come up here sometimes for inspiration for my songs, I've come up with some rockin' lyrics up here." Frank finished.

"You really love music don't you?" I asked.

"What can I say it's been me and Len's dream since as long as I can remember." Frank answered honestly.

"Must be nice to be bonded together with your sibling", I questioned.

"Yeah, I guess it's alright, but if you're one if those people who enjoy privacy I wouldn't recommend it, still I'm not complaining, we've gained a mutual respect for each other over the years".

"I envy you Frank".

"Envy me? how so?" He queried.

"Well I used to have siblings too, before the war started, I had a younger brother like you do, except his name was Zola."

"Zola? for a boy? Parents and their crazy baby names". Frank interrupted. "Oops, sorry for interrupting" he said rubbing the back of his pompadour hairdo with his blue arm.

"No harm done. Anyway, his name was Zola he was only 9 he was a bit annoying but he liked me more than our other sister, I'll get to her later, but he and I had a good relationship for a couple of years".

"What happened to him?" Frank asked sounding intrigued.

"Well, when the witches invaded our home the lake of zombies they went on to commit mass genocide by smiting as many innocent children as inhumanely as possible. All witches are female and not a single one of them has a heart. Our family was pretty high up on their death list since my dad was sort of our commander, they broke into our house and killed Zola when he ignored my dads warnings and he went outside, they ambushed him and used their black magic to stop his heart forever. Then to make sure he was dead they crushed his head with a sledgehammer".

Frank looked at me in shock he was in disbelief that anyone would be heartless enough to slaughter innocent children.

"W-w-what about your sister?" He asked sounding scared but still wanting to hear more.

Her name was Zoë, she was 17 and she was pretty tough, she was training to be the next ARM in our family."

"What the heck is an ARM sposta be?!" Frank said confused.

"Assault and Rifle Master, anyway she had a daily training routine she followed every day, she and I were closer and she was protective of me, but when push came to shove Zoë thought since she was older she was the alpha child, but her training didn't pay off, only a couple days after Zola's funeral she fell into a depressed state, but resolved to remain ever vigilant, until one day when a witch broke into my dads house and even though she fought her hardest it wasn't enough and the witch overpowered her. The witch claimed her life by ripping her throat open with a rusty knife and roasting her internal organs on an open flame."

"Good lord" Frank said dumbstruck, he reacted like he had never heard anything so awful before.

"After my siblings deaths my parents didn't want me to die too for fear that their future would be taken away, so they sent me here so I could be safe and find a better life for myself." I said finishing my tragic tale.

"Wow, I had no idea the kind of horrors you had to endure Zaí, I mean, you lost your entire life in only a few days." Frank replied still in shock of my tale.

"It was pretty brutal" I answered honestly.

"Those witches are savage! sledgehammer to the skull, roasting organs, rusty knives, killing innocent zombies just to wipe them out?" Frank questioned once again.

"People who kill without reason, can never be reasoned with" I said. "The only way to get rid of them is to kill them, but that's easier said than done."

"Bummer, I feel awful Zaí, no living person should have to live through that". Frank apologized sincerely.

"Thanks, and thanks for letting me tell you it...means a lot to me."

"Don't worry, we're all here for you Zaí and we're not gonna let anyone hurt you, come here" he said gesturing for a hug, I complied and wrapped my arms around him, I felt warmth, I felt comforted and most of all I felt safe. After hugging it out we decided to head back to the house.

But unbeknownst to us both a figure was lurking in the shadows and they didn't seem to like me and Frank's bonding.

 _(Who is this shadowy figure? Why don't they like Frank being with Zaí? Will Ruby ever tell Skull Boy how she really feels about him?_

 _All these questions and more...probably won't be answered in the next chapter, but stay tuned readers there's more to come)_


	15. The Truth Volcanos Lava Flows Out

Chapter 17: The Truth Volcanos Lava Flows Out

After parting ways with Frank for the time being I felt great, I had created stronger bonds with a lot of my new friends, Skull Boy, Poe, Doom, Iris, Ruby and now Frank. That's 6 out of 9! pretty impressive if I do say so myself. But it got me thinking who hadn't I gelled with yet? Scaredy, Len and Misery. I felt like I could spend some time with my remaining housemates and create stronger bonds with them as well.

But it wasn't much longer until I quickly realized how late it was now, the clouds were gone and the night was clear, I must've been conversing with Frank about my past longer than I had expected and now I felt how knackered it had made me, I decided that it was bedtime.

I quickly re-entered the kitchen where I checked the clock. 11:46!

Man! I really let time slip away from me! I decided to quickly make myself an almost midnight snack and get to bed before I ran out of night! I threw together a salami sandwich with mustard and a glass of milk. I carefully made my way upstairs where I met with Misery coming downstairs, it was a good thing I saw her before I turned around the corner.

"Oh, hi Misery." I said.

"Hello" she answered back quietly.

"What are you still doing up?" I wondered.

"I had to use the first aide kit in the upstairs bathroom." she answered. "What are you doing up so late?" she questioned me.

"Oh, I got lost in a looooong conversation about my past with Frank." I responded.

"With Frank?!" She said sounding a bit surprised.

"Yesss," I answered uncertainly. "I just let him know what my life was like before I came to live with you guys and he hugged me and made me feel...safe ya know? Like I could always be safe with him." I finished.

Misery looked a bit unsteady after hearing what I'd done that evening, her eye twitched.

"Gee, how...nice for him to comfort you." She said sounding like a balloon that was ready to pop.

"Okay...well I'd better get some shuteye, g'night!" I told her as I walked to my bedroom as she walked downstairs to her room.

I opened my door and set my food down on the dresser. I checked the time was now 11:59, dang, I guess I won't be waking up early tomorrow.

It suddenly struck midnight. Oh well, what better time for a midnight snack? I savoured the salty flavours of the salami and mustard, and gulped down my milk. I then got out of my clothing and changed into some new pajamas, a black T-shirt with some rock band I've never heard of on it, and some blue short shorts. I tucked myself under my quilt and opened up my small window, the misty moonlit night felt so soothing with the cool air blowing through. I finally closed my eyes and fell into a deep slumber.

However, unbeknownst to me, Misery wasn't feeling so peaceful. She was furious as she layed upon her bed of nails.

"Zaí..that-that Zaí, I-I men who does she think she is?! coming here and taking...Frank from me?"

"I've been in love with him for years, and I've never been brave enough. T-then little miss rigor mortis rolls in and all of a sudden he's goo-goo for her?" she pulled out a picture of Frank from her dress.

"Don't worry my love, I'll teach that zombie girl who's boss. Then you'll be free to love me, we'll hold hands and hug and kiss, and I won't be sad anymore! Once you and I are together, I'll be happy." Misery finished off putting her dastardly scheme in place before laying down and sleeping, dreaming of Frank and her in love, sharing a passionate kiss to cement their undying love.

 _[[Authors Note]]: I bet some of you readers are wondering why Boo Boo isn't in this story, well the main reason is that despite appearing in the opening theme and being treated like a main character, Boo Boo only had speaking roles in 12 of the 40 episodes, (That's less than half!) Also he only appears in 18 episodes total, (the other 6 were non-speaking cameos.) besides that he really had no character to work with, Poe and Scaredy may not play prominent roles in this, but they at least qualify as official characters._


	16. A Heartfelt Coincidence

Chapter 18: A Heartfelt Coincidence

 _[First and foremost, I just want to thank you guys for being so patient I know it's been a while since I updated but I've been really busy lately with university and such. Anywho, I decided to stray from the guidelines a little and have Misery be in love with Frank but too apprehensive about telling him her true feelings as opposed to having them arbitrarily already being a couple completely out of left wing.]_

(the next morning...)

It was about 7:30 when I awoke, I felt rejuvenated! like I was ready to take on the day whatever it decided to throw at me. I got out from under the warm covers and placed my bare feet on the cold wooden floor, my guess is it was cold as a result of me leaving the window open all night but then again I can't really complain since the breeze was so soothing throughout the night. I opened the door and walked into the bathroom and turned on the shower.

Unbeknownst to me, a very intimate conversation was taking place in the kitchen at my expense.

Ruby was in the kitchen getting ready to make something for breakfast when Misery came in looking apathetic.

"Oh, morning Misery" Ruby said.

"I guess it is" Misery answered rhetorically taking a seat at the table.

"What's got you so down...Or downer than usual?"

Misery seemed to be almost dreading answering her, but came to decide that if she keeps her feelings bottled up, they'd only end up exploding like a pack of mints.

"Ruby...do you think there's anything going on with Frank and Zaí?" she asked quickly.

"Yeah, I think Zaí company is starting to grow on all of us." Ruby answered obliviously.

"I was actually thinking maybe more along the lines of a romantic connection?" She hinted at.

"Hmmm...I don't know, maybe, why? Is there something wrong with that?"

"Well... Misery struggled to choke out her sentence but put on a brave face. "I kinda maybe sorta like Frank in a certain kind of particular way that could be considered as more than a friend..."

she gave a nervous looking smile.

Ruby's face lit up brighter than the sun itself.

"Misery, I had no idea you were in love with Frank." she said optimistically.

Misery decided to come clean "Ok, yes, I love him. I've been in love with him for years but I never was brave enough to tell him how I feel."

Ruby suddenly realized that over the years the feelings for Skull Boy she had been repressing was essentially the same thing.

"Y'know Misery, believe it or not I know exactly how that feels."

"How so?"

"Weeeelllll..I kinda...have a huge crush on Skull Boy." She blurted out.

"Really?" she said surprised.

"Really Really"

"So what can I-we do?" Misery pondered.

"The only thing we can do Misery, we have to stop bottling up our emotions and tell them how we feel, it's the only way."

Misery seemed unsteady but couldn't argue with Ruby knowing she was absolutely 100% correct.

"Then it's settled, if I want to be happy I have to make an effort to make Frank aware."

"That's the spirit!" Ruby said in a gung-ho attitude.

Misery got up and wrapped around Ruby in a hug. "Thank you." she said.

"No trouble." Ruby replied.

Back upstairs I had finished my shower and had spent enough time drying out. I decided to wear something a little more familiar today so I went with a green sweater that had seen better days since it had minor grime on it, not to mention that almost the entire left sleeve was torn clean off. I also put on a dark blue pair of jeans that had the right knee completely ripped out, and the left leg was almost like a capri since it went past my knee but not enough to reach my ankle. I also slipped on some purple low cut sneakers with turquoise tongues. After dressing myself I quickly rushed downstairs.


	17. Awk-word-ness is Bliss

Chapter 19: Awk-word-ness is Bliss

 _[sorry for the long update you guys I had a major case of writer's block but I guarantee you that this chapter will be longer and the next chapter will up the drama]_

I arrived in the great hall lickety-split. I kept rolling over a bunch of unanswered questions in my head and pondered them. When was Ruby planning to tell Skull Boy her feelings? Will Skull Boy's prediction for me come true? and what was Misery so upset about last night?

I shrugged them off, knowing I'd eventually get some answers. I decided to go into the kitchen for some breakfast. I entered and Ruby and Misery were in there.

"Morning" I said.

"Good morning Zaí" Ruby answered cheerfully, Misery looked less enthusiastic, but then again when does she not?

"Did you sleep well?" Ruby asked me.

"Yeparoo, slept with the window open so I could let all the cool air in, but I should be smarter and not lose track of time like I did yesterday." I answered.

"You don't say..." Misery replied clearly aware of the reason behind my late curfew.

"Let's just say I let time slip away and leave it at that." I said not really feeling like educating them about my bad habit.

"Nevertheless, this place is like living in a palace compared to my previous living arrangements." I said changing the subject.

"Thanks, Zaí" Ruby said. "We try to ensure everyone here is well accommodated."

I noticed Misery wasn't that interested in what I was saying so I thought maybe if I could make her laugh maybe she'd open up, even though she looked like she hadn't cracked a smile since she cracked her mirror. *rimshot*

"You guys wanna hear an awesome joke?" I pondered.

"Sure" Ruby replied. "Why not?" Misery answered halfhearted.

"Ok, why did the zombie stand in a corner when she felt cold?"

They both shrugged.

"Corners are 90 degrees!"

They both let out a chuckle, Misery's was small but I could tell she liked it.

"Good one, Zaí!" Ruby said.

"You like it? I got a couple more."

"I'm game" Misery said with a slightly more positive demeanor.

"What stresses coral out?"

They once again shrugged

"Current events"

That one earned and even bigger laugh from both of them.

"Ok, 1 more, what do French people call a really bad Thursday?"

Another shrug

"A Tra-jeudi"

That one received the largest number of giggles yet.

"Where'd you learn such great jokes Zaí?" Ruby asked.

"Growing up my little brother Zola was a bit of a jokester."

"I'm really sorry about what happened to your siblings Zaí, I couldn't begin to imagine how traumatizing that must've been for you."

At this point Misery had begun to recede her rage inside her that I was unaware of and she looked sad but now she looked as though she was sad for me instead, and the most bizarre thing

I could sense it...

Then Frank and Len entered the kitchen, Len was still asleep and I had no idea how Frank could walk if Len controlled the left side of their body, it was a question I'd never get an answer to. Bollocks.

"Hey ladies" Frank said.

I saw Misery's face light up like a Christmas tree, her pale grey skin blushed to a deep crimson, she looked nervous and enamored at the same time.

"Hey Zaí." he said to me.

"Morning Frank, Len still not up yet?" I questioned even though the answer was obvious.

"Nope, Len is well known for his sleep patterns being extremely out of proportion."

"Well, hopefully he and I can get better acquainted too."

"Speaking of getting better acquainted I was wondering if you weren't busy maybe you'd want to take a little stroll?" he asked with a hint of hesitation in his voice.

"Sure, sounds great." I answered.

"Right on."

"What about Len? will he be awake anytime today?" I asked.

"Well, given it's fairly early he'll prolly be up in about a half hour, time permitting."

Whilst me and Frank were conversing I was oblivious to Misery giving me a withering scowl followed by a harsh glare, she looked visibly upset like our previous conversation had suddenly been thrown out the window.

With that me and Frank left the kitchen while still inside Misery's face had turned red with anger, it looked like she was about to burst like a balloon.

Ruby took notice of Misery's demeanor and struck up a conversation before she burst.

"I noticed you looked a tad upset there, Misery." Ruby asked her friend.

"Upset. Me. Nooo. No Siree. I'm just peachy!" she said tensely.

"Misery remember what we talked about, we're never going to get who we want to like us if we don't even attempt to tell them how we feel." Ruby said sincerely.

"Well...I guess so..." Misery said reluctantly.

"Misery, I know telling someone you admire is the most terrifying thing a person can do but manifesting your feelings isn't the answer. I think we both have to make big changes around here, good changes." Ruby finished.

Ruby's words of wisdom seem to light a fire in Misery awakening the eye of the tiger that was deep inside of her. She now was driven, from that moment on: No More Fear.

"You're right Ruby! I'm not scared anymore! and I'm not gonna let anything else stop me from expressing my own feelings ever again!" she said motivated.

She then walked out of the kitchen to follow me and Frank (and Len to a lesser extent [Ooh, did that sound rude?]) and finally put to rest her inhibitions.

"I knew she had it in her, she just needed some help to set it free." Ruby said to herself watching from the door.

Just then Poe entered the kitchen.

"Top of the morning to you Ruby, how are you?" he asked politely.

"Feeling pretty darn great Poe." she answered.

"You don't say, if you don't mind my asking, how so?"

"Well, let's just say Misery isn't gonna let fear control her anymore." she responded.

"Oh Splendid, what a miraculous triumph for our Misery, absolutely smashing!" Poe said in exhilaration.

"Quite splendid indeed Poe, quite splendid indeed." Ruby said before getting back to stirring the contents of her bowl.

 _[Did you like my new chapter? Hopefully the next one won't take too long, but I'll tell you what if I can get_ _ **3**_ _more reviews on my story then I'll work more diligently to make a new chapter for you guys, and this time I promise to up the drama, OK readers, peace!]_


	18. A Turn of the Tides

Chapter 20: A Turn of the Tides

 _(Once again sorry for the long update you guys been working hard L8ly, but the good news is I think I've gotten past the most difficult part of the story and the rest hopefully should flow like a river.)_

After leaving the kitchen me and Frank strolled down through the backyard and through the graveyard, (don't assume because I'm a zombie I'm used to death) as we continued out I pondered some questions in my head, but decided to wait until stopping before I asked.

Finally we came to a stop near a old twisty tree void of anything green. The house was in the distance but still visible and within our sightline.

We sat down at the base of the trunk.

"Ok, here we are I guess, I've got a few questions." I said breaking the silence.

"I thought you might, go ahead fire away." He said coaxing me on.

I was surprised but decided not to make things more difficult.

"Why did you bring me here?

Why did you pick me?

What exactly is going on here?"

Well, I brought you here because it was about the only place I could think of that was private.

Unbeknownst to us both, private was the LAST thing that spot was, due to 2 figures watching from the shadows and one who was en route to our location following us without our knowledge.

"Those other 2 questions can be answered together, You see I know you're kinda the "newbie" around here but I just feel that I can trust you enough to relay some crucial information your way." he answered. I felt kinda proud that even though I haven't been here long I've gained his trust.

He took a deep breath in, "I've been kinda hiding how I feel about someone."

"Yeah, join the club, Ruby and Skull Boy are in the same boat." I said surprised at how many people in this house were so apprehensive, it was frankly becoming a bit disconcerning.

"Ok, so why couldn't you discuss this with Len?"

"Unless you haven't noticed Len here isn't the best to discuss romantic situations with. Heck, I'm not even sure if he's mature enough to understand it!"

I knew he was right, but I didn't want to accidentally insult Len so I just kept my mouth shut.

"So who's the girl?" I pondered.

"Misery" he said without hesitation.

I squealed to myself on the inside and I couldn't stop a smile from brightening up my face.

"OMG, you and Misery, that'd be soooo cute!" I said overexcited.

"Ssshhhh! Lower your voice or someone might hear you" Frank shushed nervously.

"I don't see anyone" though I didn't realize it yet, that wouldn't be true for much longer. I decided that Frank needed some sage advice.

"Well, if you like Misery you shouldn't bottle up your feelings, you and Len know about Ruby's crush on Skull Boy right?"

"Right".

"And you know how apprehensive Ruby is."

"Even when it's completely obvious" he added.

"Exactly".

"Well, however many years they've manifested themselves, nothing has gotten any better or worse has it?" I queried.

"Good point" Frank answered.

"Case in point, Misery's not gonna wait forever for you, you have to go to Misery and admit your admiration for her before someone else beats you to the punch."

Frank held onto every word I had belted out, he seemed to be worried if somebody else would make a move on Misery, and he would miss his chance.

"Enough is enough, I'm gonna go tell her right now! I'm not scared anymore!" Frank boomed triumphantly.

"That's the ticket" I responded.

"I can't thank you enough Zaí, your company gave me the boost I needed.

"Happy to help".

But before Frank had gone 5 steps he failed to notice an upturned root in the violet grass beneath our feet, and stumbled over on top of me after his checkered shoe was accidentally placed under the root.

He tripped over on me tackling me to the grass, I thought I would be in much more pain but the ground was surprisingly not as hard. We both looked at one another and blushed giving an awkward look at each other,

that is until...

"Frank?!" we heard the voice of a familiar banshee who was standing right beside us who had just witnessed the entire scene...

My heart sunk to my stomach...

"How could you?!" Misery shouted while holding back tears. "I thought that...we...we're supposed to be..." Misery then realized that her meagre attempts were futile, and that she was too late, her love, her paramour, her soulmate, her future husband...was taken.

She buried her face in her hands and sobbed uncontrollably while running back to the mansion as fast as her legs could take her.

"Misery wait! It's not like that, it was just an accident!" Frank called after Misery desperately trying to explain, to no avail.

I felt terrible, I had just learned that Misery was a conclusion jumper and I had just given her the wrong impression and now she despises me more than anything!

Beyond a shadow of a doubt I had morally, ethically, undeniably and reliably screwed up.

"I messed up big time..." I said out loud.

"You sure did." said a menacing but strangely familiar voice.

I turned around and saw a figure wearing a black cloak.

Before I had time to react, the dark being put me in a headlock and held a rag to my mouth. I took one whiff and realized that the rag was soaked in chloroform... but I couldn't say or do anything before I lost consciousness.

The figure then preceded to bind my limp limbs together with rope and shove my limp body in a burlap sack. The being then flung the sack over their shoulder and gave a menacing chortle, before running off with me in tow.

Unbeknownst to my assailant one of my housemates had witnessed my kidnapping. Watching frozen in fear from behind a nearby shrub was my adorable feline companion...

Doom.

 _(Huh? What do you guys think is that a cliffhanger or what?_

 _What's going down next time you may ask? Well stay tuned folks and I will get back to you...)_


	19. Villain Clichés

Chapter 21: Villain Clichés

I awoke inside a dark round room made out of reinforced steel with a reddish tint. There seemed to be a pit of bubbling liquid in the middle of the room, bearing a strong resemblance to radioactive waste.

I, myself was inside a black metal cage at the back of the room with bars that were impossible to squeeze through. I felt like a canary stuck in a birdcage, except I didn't feel like chirping or singing since the situation at hand didn't really call for it.

Then my assailant entered the room. They still wore a black hooded cloak that made them resemble a dæmon, the only other current visible feature was the purple boots they were wearing that made a large sound with every step they took, as they got closer and closer to my prison cell.

"I see that you think you'd found a safe haven, hmm, my dear?" I heard them say, the voice was female, scratchy but in no way weak, it sounded very familiar, but I couldn't put my finger on it.

"W-who-who are you? What do you want?" I asked hesitantly.

"You really can't put the pieces together Zaí? You're denser than driftwood!" she insulted. "Ok, I guess the cat had to come out of the bag eventually." she then removed her black cloak letting it drop to the cold concrete floor below. I gasped in shock.

She had bright magenta hair and a crazed look in her eye, she wore a mauve dress with a large black "X" logo on the front, the sleeves were torn so her left sleeve ended at her elbow whereas the right one went almost all the way down to her hand, the dress was paired with fuchsia fishnet stockings and matching mauve boots, she looked to be my age and she was,

My kidnapper standing directly in front of me was none other than my traitorous, vile, murderous former best friend...

DeDe.

"DeDe?!" I cried out in shock.

"In the flesh, you oughta know a thing or two about flesh eh Zaí? considering it is constantly rotting off your body, freak." she stated before letting out a menacing chortle.

"Why are you doing this?" I questioned.

"If you think I'm gonna reveal my plot to you by monologuing then you are sadly mistaken little miss Rigor Mortis." she claimed.

"I'll tell you what I'm doing when I feel like it, and until then I think you need to be taught a little lesson, a lesson in...torture.


	20. The Search for the Healing Heart

Chapter 22: The Search for the Healing Heart

(Hey guys, super sorry I haven't had time to update for awhile, I recently got a new part-time job and along with university doesn't leave me much down time. Apart from that if I can get a couple more reviews It'd make me a lot more confident that people care.

N E way let's start already!)

While I was having a grand ole' time enjoying the birdcage experience, my fellow housemates were attempting to reach out to a disgruntled banshee, and having zero success.

"Misery, please I'm sure it was just a misunderstanding, that's all." Ruby said coaxing Misery, who had locked herself in her room and barricaded the door so she could bawl her eyes out in private.

"Any luck?" asked Skull Boy entering the scene.

"Nope" said Iris. She's dug in like a tick."

Scaredy wasn't taking the pressure extremely well as he was hyperventilating into a paper bag.

Len had been woken up by Frank as soon as they returned to the house and Frank had explained to him the event that transpired while he slept. But even Frank knew that attempting to talk to Misery was pointless due to her being furious at him.

Poe was concerned for Misery as well but one of his knowledge was beneficial for this exact situation.

"All right" said Len, "let me see if i've got this straight; Frank likes Misery and was talking to Zaí to boost his confidence when accidently tripped over a tree root thus making Misery who followed them in secret believe Frank likes Zaí instead of her?"

"Yep" "Uh-huh" "Pretty much" the others replied.

"Whoa. So where's Zaí?"

Meanwhile, Doom had seen me getting bagged and gagged and was rushing back to the house as fast as her little paws could take her.

As soon as she reached the mansion, she remembered she couldn't reach the doorknob...or open it for that matter. One of the perks of being a cat I guess. She meowed in her violin sounds, which Ruby heard from inside.

"Sounds like I better let Doom in" Ruby informed the others.

She came to the door and let Doom in. Doom rushed to the others with Ruby clise behind and began to mime out with violin sounds what she had just witnessed, her only means of communicating with her verbal companions. She made a gesture referring to Zaí then a sneaky crook, then falling over dazed, then throwing a sack over her shoulder.

"Oh, I see" said Len.

"You got poked in the eye by a tree branch, and once you came to you assumed that you were a bank-robbing crook and the master of the universe sent nomads to hypnotize your waterskis into attacking you for your watermelon flavoured gum until you hit your head on another tree and then realized you were really a black cat who forgot everything until just now."

Everyone looked at Len confused and awestruck.

"What? I'm not allowed to guess?" he answered half-upset.

"Let me have a go" said Ruby, "I always understand Doom."

Doom narrowed her eyes at her owner.

"Ok, maybe that one time with the bunny" she admitted sheepishly remembering how disloyal she was to her pet.

"But I thought we agreed never to talk about him ever again?" added Len.

"Well right now I believe that's besides the point." Poe stated, "Doom is trying to inform us of...something...nefarious?" he said questioning himself.

Doom acted out the same way again which Ruby understood and was alarmed.

"Oh no, this is terrible!" she cried out.

"I knew it!" Poe shouted "Nefarious wrongdoings are sure to befall us, Oh the humanity!"

Scaredy fainted.

"What'd Doom say Ruby?" Iris asked.

"She says she saw Zaí get ambushed by a cloaked assailant who shoved her in a bag and ran off." she told.

"Oh man oh man, I really messed things up!" Frank said putting his blue arm around his head.

"Well, what do we do?" Iris asked.

"We're all going to have to put together a search party and rescue her." Ruby answered. "Skull Boy, we could use your adventurer persona for this."

"Really? well I guess I could, if Zaí needs us then I can't say no." Skull Boy answered confidently.

"Who's in?" Ruby asked.

"I've gotta put things right" Frank stated. "I'm in."

"Me too" said Len, "besides it's not like I could stay behind anyway."

"Zaí needs us, I'm in." added Iris.

"As am I." said Poe.

Doom gestured too since she was the only witness.

Scaredy looked skeptical.

"Perhaps I should remain behind and tend to Misery?" Scaredy said looking for an excuse to get out of it.

Everyone looked shocked as they had forgotten about Misery.

"How are we going to get her out? she's never gonna agree to help Zaí or be around Frank right now." Iris stated.

"What can we do?" Frank asked Skull Boy.

"I don't know I don't know if only I had a few minutes to think about it." Skull Boy answered with a quivering voice.

 _(Once I figured out a plan to coax Misery into going then I'll get to a new chapter, if I get a few more reviews/comments whatever you wanna call 'em I'll work harder to make a new chapter, hopefully more than one.)_


	21. Plan B

Chapter 23: Plan B

Everyone knew they had to gather their provisions and leave as soon as possible to rescue me, but Misery wasn't having any of it, and that was a bit of a deal-breaker.

"What can we do about Misery? Any ideas?" Ruby asked everyone else.

"Well, guys I think we've only got one option: We're gonna have to leave Misery behind." Skull Boy answered.

"But we can't leave her here all alone." said Iris. "Especially not if she's in this bad of a mood."

"I know that we all want to help both Misery and Zaí right now, but at this point there is nothing more we can do to help Misery right now. While Zaí needs all the help we can offer her." Ruby said reluctantly.

Everyone agreed.

"What do you say Scaredy?" Frank asked.

"Well, although the very idea of going on a perilous quest to save Zaí from potentially more dangerous captors. I can't be truly alright until I know she's alright" Scaredy answered truthfully.

"That's the spirit!" Skull Boy answered. "Okay everybody, let's get packing, we don't know how long we'll be gone or what we'll encounter." Ruby spoke seriously.

Everyone then ran off to pack their bags, unbeknownst to me a cavalry was organized to save me.

Pretty soon, the gang were all gathered in the parlour with their bags packed.

"Ok Doom" spoke Ruby. "You were the last one to see Zaí so take us to where she was.

"Capital idea Ruby, onward ho!" Skull Boy added on speaking in his expedition leader voice (same as in _Iris Springs Eternal_ ).

Doom agreed and lead the rescue party out the door.

"Take a good long look Len." Frank told his brother. "It might be a long time before we see this place again."

Len followed his advice. "So do you think Misery will ever want to talk to you again?" he questioned.

Frank thought deeply and answered "There's no way I can know for sure Len, It's all up to fate."

"Fate? I hope they know what their doing, because that must be an insane amount of pressure for them, whoever they are." Len confusedly confessed.

Frank couldn't help but smack himself in the forehead again.

Doom lead them to the location where my abduction occurred and I became an abductee. (That bit was pretty obvious but I don't have the wherewithal to defend myself here.)

"Ok Doom, you're our key witness so did you see which way she went?" Skull Boy asked his feline friend.

Doom thought to herself and remember the direction that I was unintentionally headed for. She pointed the way and began following my scent.

"Follow that cat!" Skull Boy called to the group, and everyone followed closely behind Doom into the unknown...

About my scent I've been showering frequently and I've been fairly clean lately so it couldn't be that bad of a smell right?

I guess I'll still be a rotting corpse when this is over. That is to say, I _**may**_ still be a zombie now, but by the time DeDe's finished with me who's to say if I'll even be in one piece?! This just got a whole lot heavier.

(*gulp*)

 _(next chapter coming soon, Stay groovy readers, Peace!)_


	22. Exposition, Exposition, Rush it out ASAP

Chapter 24: Exposition, Exposition, Rush it Out ASAP

While I was unaware that my remaining so-called friends were on the way to save me, DeDe was exhibiting that she didn't covet the best set of hospitality skills.

"Listen up, verminette! Until further notice you're gonna stay up in that cage under lock and key." DeDe threateningly explained. I never knew someone could never stop talking, yet end up say nothing at all!

"Why are you doing this?" I questioned although I already mostly knew the answer.

"Well, I guess I've kept you in suspense long enough."

"You see Zaí, your inferior species has been a plague on mankind for too long.

Society would call you a famine, I would call you an infestation."

"Really? _Society_ would call zombies a famine?" I questioned not believing it entirely.

" _Well us witches would_ and that's close enough. But that's beside the point, we have a goal, a dream if you will, to eradicate you unholy creatures and cleanse the world."

"And now..." DeDe pulled an ominous looking object from a small satchel she wore on her belt.

"thanks to this little trinket, were closer than we've ever been before."

"What is that?" I asked clutching the bars of the cage. It looked like a brooch shaped like a precious gemstone filled with a sort of magic potion, it glowed a brilliant bright magenta like a magnolia flower in bloom. Despite its beauty I knew it to be toxic, or even worse lethal.

"This is the source of all the power that belongs to witches, with this we can finally eradicate the verminous undead that have plagued us for years." DeDe explained with a vile grin.

"What happened to you DeDe?" I asked her with my voice trembling. "We used to be best friends".

"Emphasis on ' **used to** ' Zaí. Times change, our environments change and even the people around us do. We may have been close before but everybody has to make sacrifices, I sacrificed your friendship and gained the admiration and loyalty of all my fellows. Unlike you I finally gave into my primal instincts and went through the changes that every witch eventually goes through. Lucky for me I was able to adapt to my new surroundings and now I'm in a very powerful position within the witch hierarchy. Heck, you may as well start calling me admiral of the fleet." Once DeDe had finished her drawn out exposition I spoke up.

"You're never gonna get away with this you know!" I said not entirely sure how, but I was still optimistic.

"Well if you still think that way perhaps you need a demonstration of the power I now have..."

She produce a small gun from her dress and fired a dart directly at me and it went directly through the bars of the cage and into my neck. Once it hit me in the neck I knew what it was...

A tranquilizer dart.

and then everything went black...

and we'll end it there for now. Hope you guys are enjoying the suspense so far, and I hope you appreciate that I'm still committed to finishing this story _**unlike some other fanfic writers.**_

K, Peace out homies!


	23. Evil Wits!

Chapter 25: Evil Wits!

I awoke to find myself in the same cage and gave up on this just being a misleading dream sequence. But that's when I noticed that a small sphere that was metallic blue with a red blinking light on its side. It was about the size of a baseball had been strapped to my hand!

I couldn't move a single finger it was the super-duper never come off until you're dead and probably even a lot longer than that, kind of glue.

"Morning Zaí, ok look I've got some good news and some really good news."

"For the record DeDe, just BTW 'In order to play **catch** you have to be able to **let go** of the ball!' I said sarcastically.

"Oh how amusing Zaí, you actually think I'm going to give you something as pointless as a baseball. No no no no no, what you've gotten your hand there is a bomb.

I couldn't breathe.

"and I glued it to your hand for a good reason, that bomb is pressure activated. If you lift so much as one finger off it, it will detonate. There's enough C-4 in there to blow you all the way to Jupiter!" I gulped in fear.

"That was the good news! The really good news is you're not the only zombie imprisoned here." DeDe said menacingly.

"W-what are you saying?" I said quivering frightfully.

"I'm saying that our forces have managed to exterminate a good large number of your kind during your absence, and although we still have yet to locate the next generation of zombies your elders are protecting we've still managed to exterminate any kind of zombie dumb enough to still be above ground, now thanks to your kinds imbecility there's less than a hundred of you still... I was going to say "alive and/or breathing" but neither of those apply to you so I'll just say left.

But since I know you've been sitting in there bored, I've prepared for you a video of the battlefield after our victory.

A screen dropped down from the ceiling.

I couldn't believe it, it was horrible. The witches were walking through a field full of my people laying dead after being innocently slaughtered like cattle!

I saw skulls crushed, throats ripped out, limbs crushed and torn, organs out laying in the frozen ground. Innocent zombies floating in a lake with their massacred bodies polluting blood into the water.

Tears streamed down my cheek from my one eye, the other ones tear-duct was torn out too.

"You...monsters..." I choked out.

"Monsters? If anything is a monster here Zaí it's you. You're an undead creature who isn't even supposed to exist, you should be a piece of furniture by now!"

"Furniture?"

"Thanks to an inspirational man named Mr. Ed Gein we've been using your kind as a way of decorating."

"Polished zombie skulls become lovely bowls. Zombie flesh makes great upholstery and lampshades. Tongues make great necklaces and fingers are great for utensils."

I almost threw up, the imagery was so disgusting.

"But I've gone and gotten myself far too sidetracked, she pressed a button which caused another cage to rise out of the floor, I gasped in shock, fear and alarm, inside that cage...

was my father...

 _(Oooohhh, what a big Shyamalan-esque twist huh? Stay tuned for more readers.)_


	24. Adventure of a Strifetime

Chapter 26: Adventure of a Strifetime

 _(I'm back you guys, sorry for the long wait,_ _ **again**_ _. University psychology classes are as difficult as they sound. The good news is screw week has come and gone. Now I can devote more time to finishing the story.)_

On the brighter side of the spectrum, the gang was following Doom's lead to confront my captor.

"So, let me see if I've got this right. We're gonna follow Doom on foot to find whoever kidnapped Zaí with no idea who or what were going up against?" Iris asked.

"That's the gyst of it, yes" Ruby answered.

"So why aren't we taking a train or something? Wouldn't that be quicker and to a lesser extent safer?" Len asked.

"Len, do you even remember what happened last time we got on a train?" Frank reminded him of their infamous trip on the rails.

(Flashback: "Last Train to Gloomsville" the gang are seen on a runaway train with the engineer thrown clear and ending with the train falling through the tracks)

"Oh yeah, right." Len said remembering "That trip was totally bogus anyway, the Wocca-Wocca bird is so elusive it might as well only exist on other planets!"

"Len, can we focus on the issue at hand now?" his brother asked him.

"Sorry" he answered sheepishly.

Doom continued to lead the gang in my direction for a good clean half hour, considering I was unconscious they were seeing the way a lot better than I had. Eventually the route lead straight out of Gloomsville altogether into the much more wild part of the world where the only comforts of home were storm clouds and a sentient moon with big girly eyes watching over you.

Eventually the fellowship came across a clearing.

Doom stopped dead in her tracks.

"Uh oh, looks like Doom's lost the trail." Ruby said.

"Now how will we find Zaí?" Poe questioned.

"Skull Boy, now might be a good time for one of your inspirational leadership messages." Ruby whispered to her crush.

"Uhh..Right, inspire." He started pacing the ground running the idea around in his head trying to find a solution. Until.

"That's it!" he hollered.

"What's it?" Len asked slightly jostled by the sudden expression.

In his confident explorer voice he said "If we've lost the trail of our culprit then it's clear that they would've _known_ someone would be coming after them. Therefore, the assailant would've gone through extra precautions to cover their tracks and took Zaí in the most difficult direction to be followed from."

"That's a great idea Skull Boy" Ruby said. "Okay, everybody look around and try to see if there are any obstacles that the kidnapper would've gone through to ensure nobody followed them."

The gang all split up and looked in several directions spanning the clearings edge, from an outside glance nothing seemed out of the ordinary, that is until.

"Hey you guys" Skull Boy informed the others, "I think I found it."

Everyone else rushed over and found a very large, dense thicket made of dark grey brambles with no visible vegetation and seemed to span the length of the Titanic, Britannic and Olympic besides one another.

"That does not look very inviting, perhaps we should quit while we're ahead?" Scaredy said sort of half aware no one would agree with him.

"I know it's not the ideal way to go, but it's the only way they could've taken Zaí." Ruby told him.

"And it looks like going around isn't an option." Frank added.

Poe cleared his throat "If I may make an observation?"

"Sure"/"Go ahead"/"By all means" said the others.

"Although this labyrinth is unavoidable, I do believe that Scaredy and myself are capable of flying over it" Poe observed.

"That could be beneficial" said Skull Boy clearly impressed with Poe's idea. "With an aerial view we can avoid certain dangers and Poe can see the fastest way out.

"Flying? Oh dear, I am afraid my nerves are far too wracked to be in the sky, I suffer from a terrifying case of vertigo." Scaredy said.

"It's okay Scaredy, I had a feeling this would be hard for you, but remember when we needed you to fly to make that movie?" Ruby reminded Scaredy.

"I still haven't forgotten" Scaredy admitted.

"Well if you could do it back then you can do it again now." Iris added.

"Remember, it's entirety up to you Scaredy." Skull Boy added.

Then Frank pitched in saying "It boils down to two options. A) Fly over this thorny forest. Or B) Go through it."

Scaredy looked into the metaphorical **adversary** he was facing and as much as he didn't like flying going through it didn't seem like a viable option either. Or at least no better.

 _(Sorry to end on a cliffhanger you guys, but it but it looks to me like Scaredy's going to need some time to figure this one out all by himself. But don't worry I'll have a new chapter up and running in no time. BTW, adversary was Merriam-Websters word of the day, so I just couldn't resist including it in here.)_


	25. Healed

Chapter 27: Healed

While the gang had hit a crossroads back at the mansion, Misery was beginning to relieve herself of her pain.

She was still sealed inside her room, but had been bawling so much her eyes were now too sore to continue.

She shook herself off realizing she had to get over her worst nightmare and move on. She began to speak to herself.

"Ok Misery, Frank doesn't love you, and now he never will. But you can't cry anymore or else I might get cataracts or my retinas could start to bleed. It's hard enough being cursed with bad luck I don't need to lose my vision too. I guess I'd better go upstairs and let everyone know I'm okay, I'll just accept it how it is, you are a strong independent girl who doesn't need a boyfriend to be happy, I can face it."

Once Misery had finished her monologue of acceptance she reached the top of the stairs and slowly opened the door into the kitchen.

"Hello? Ruby? Skull Boy? Iris? Poe?" She called out questioningly.

Misery then began to search through the mansion for her housemates, in the great hall, the halls, their respective rooms, the bathroom (she remembered to knock first), and the closet but no one was anywhere to be found inside.

"Maybe they're all outside?" She pondered.

She then began searching the grounds outside the front entrance, Poe's dwelling that looked much skinnier from an outside view, Frank and Len's garage, Scaredy's hammock, the graveyard and all throughout the backyard hills but no sign of anyone.

"How long was I in there for?!" Misery said quizzically. "Ok Misery all of your friends have disappeared without a trace, what are the implications of this? What if I was in there for so long I lost track of time?! For all I know I could've been in ther for years, maybe even decades! I've gotta get to the bottom of this!" she said in a panic.

Misery ran back into the house as quick as a cheetah (well maybe if said aforementioned cheetah wearing a long dress it could easily trip over).

She ran up to Skull Boy's room and made her way up to his telescope, she then peered at Luna the moon, with her big eyes staring directly back at her, now the lunar calendar probably wasn't the easiest way to tell the date, but don't forget the gang uses radios and phonographs for entertainment.

Misery managed to figure it out after a few tries getting the trajectory lined up. According to the lunar stages Misery was relieved to see it hadn't been years, heck it hadn't even been a full day. Relieved to say the least she headed back downstairs.

"There's gotta be a reasonable explanation for where they've gone." Misery told herself before closing the door that lead to her subterranean room. Much to her surprise she found a note hanging on the door, which she had failed to see due to leaving it open. Given it was the only clue she had she began to read it.

—

 _"Dear Misery,_

 _After you retreated to your room, Zaí was kidnapped by an unknown assailant, thanks to Doom we know where she went, so we have all gone to rescue her. Knowing the state you are in now and however you feel when you find this note, we had no choice but to depart without you._

 _If you wish to come and find us, we may need you if we get into a predicament. I know you and Zaí aren't really on speaking terms right now, but her life may be in grave danger, and right now she needs us. We can't just abandon her, she's one of us and we promised we'd keep her out of harms way._

 _Zaí would do the same for any of us, so just take some time to think about it, ok? If we don't save her soon I fear the worst for her and her kind being left to the mercy of the witches armada. We're not coming back without her. We're a family, and that means we all stick together no matter what._

 _Sincerely, Ruby."_

—

Misery was in shock.

Zaí was in dire need of help. Misery was upset with her but although she had originally wanted Zaí to hurt as bad as she did, she never would've wished death upon her. That's over the line even by her limitations.

"Misery, this is not a game, Zaí's life is in danger, you're friends lives are in danger, Frank's life is in danger." she held back a tear. "I've got to find them and come up with a plan." she said heroically. "I may have lost Frank, but if I lose all my friends I'll have no one." Misery said with a drop of saline liquid trickling down her cheek.

She ran into her room to pack her bags, she didn't care if she came back dead or alive, or even if she came back at all. She then looked down at her casual dress and decided "I'm gonna need some more appropriate attire for this mission."

The determined young banshee girl dug into her other clothes she never wore.

Misery then dug into her most intense outfit, a little number that would make any mans heart flutter.

She threw her dress over her head and left it on her bedpost before looking at her new attire.

"You're time has come."

She changed into the outfit, zipped it up, grabbed her supplies and headed upstairs. She wore a black one piece suit made of leather, it had long sleeves and a zipper on the front, instead of something long the suit had shorts that exposed her legs as they barely went halfway down her thighs and she kept her black fingerless gloves and all of that paired with a pair of black high heeled boots with a stiletto heel. She had also removed the veil from atop her head. She looked almost entirely different. But now was not the time for that.

She went out the front door and saw that a vast blanket of mist had rolled into the grounds. Misery took a breath of fresh air into her lungs before taking one last glance at the mansion. She then set off into the misty night.

"Time to go save my friends."

 _(Huh? Whaddya think, pretty cool. Misery as a spysuit wearing badass. I know it's not really in character for her but roll with me here I had to give her a motivation to go. Plus the Gloomsville girls rarely ever change their outfits and never expose any of their legs. We've only ever seen the males shirtless or in swimwear.)_

 _BTW, The next chapter might be a little more..._ _ **intense**_ _._


	26. Shattered

Chapter 28: Shattered

(WARNING: This chapter contains material that is a violent and gory and is not suitable for children under the age of 13)

 **You have been Warned**

I couldn't believe it, DeDe had slaughtered my people in a bloody massacre and now she had taken me and my dad as her prisoners. I was almost afraid to ask what she was going to do. I thought of asking her what she aimed to achieve but then I realized she'd just probably bring it back to the whole 'cleansing the world of the unholiest of beings' nonsense, so I just said.

"Dad?"

"That's right Zaí, old chum, you're people's precious leader and to a lesser extent your daddy has failed to protect his people." DeDe said menacingly "I know we have yet to succeed in eradicating your kind from existence as a rebel sub colony has gone into hiding underground, amongst them a couple dozen or so of your people, your wise elders, and the entire next generation of zombies. We still need to find that cell and crush them." she finished shaping her right hand into a fist.

"If anything, _we're_ not the real monsters here, _**you are!"**_ I said seriously.

"Au contraire Zaí. It's ancient history about who the villains are in this story, but moreso it is **we** who now have the power to put you on the run."

Once again, more pointless rambling. I wondered if she was ever going to get to the point! But then again I was in a cage. Sooo maybe it wasn't the time to be impatient.

"Now if you'll excuse me, I have some loose ends to tie up, you two can enjoy each others company, while you still can..." she then exited the room.

"Zaí" my dad called me.

"Dad, how did this all happen?" I asked.

"After you left, your mother lead the rebel colony to safety underground, whilst I was on the frontlines of the assault. Let's just say it didn't end well, after massacring my troops the witches became more relentless than ever. So I made my escape and headed back to the house to load up on extra weapons to arm myself, your sisters weapons to be precise." he said shedding a tear, I was on the brink of tears as well, I always knew my dad favoured Zoë best but to lose her like that was nearly unbearable. "I thought I could still make it but when I went down into the basement to get my weapons before I could turn on the lights DeDe attacked me with a rag soaked in ether. One thing lead to another and I woke up here." he said finishing his tale.

"Oh brava commander! came the voice of DeDe who had reentered the room without our knowledge applauding sarcastically. "What a touching sentiment I almost cared, emphasis on "almost" she said in air quotes. "But I think we've had enough explaining and it's time for action!"

"What do you want with me and my daughter?" my dad asked her angrily.

"Oh General Zenon, you're so naïve, I think I stated several times I want your kind extinct, can ya get that through yer vinyl noggin'?" she said in a western accent.

"You won't get away with this, we may be down but we'll never surrender."

"Actually, I wasn't asking for your permission." she said menacingly. Suddenly she produced a shotgun from behind her back and took him out of the cage and over to a chair she then proceeded to tie him to with chains, she then approached my father only to point the gun at his knee. I saw he was ready to stand his ground. (Well technically he was sitting)

"Here we go, to win it all we need an answer to the #1 question: 'Where are the rebels hiding?!" she said talking like a game show host but her voice still remained menacing.

"I'll never talk." dad told her firmly.

"Wrong answer..." she fired the gun and blasted his kneecap.

"Aaaaahhhh!" he screamed in pain, I watched in horror and clasped my hand over my mouth in sheer shock.

"Now I think we understand each other, now where are they? tell me!" she screamed holding the gun to his opposite thigh.

"U-u-underground." technically it was true, but not enough for DeDe's liking. She fired the gun directly through his thigh.

"Aaaaaggghhh" he cried again. I held back tears like a dam holding water in a reservoir, but it wasn't holding up as good anymore.

"That tears it! No more missy nicey-nice!" she got out a jagged knife with a serrated edge, the kind used for steak. She jammed the knife through his thigh and dug into it attempting to slice it clean off!"

I can only look on in horror as I heard his pain screams of agony bellow through the lair and reverberate against the walls.

She dug the knife clean through his thigh slowly, making sure the jagged edge was leaving the deepest welt imaginable, and it was working because a pool of blood was on the floor and from a distance it looked black. That's never a good sign. She dug until his leg wasn't even on his body anymore it was dangling to his flesh by a tiny bone fragment that could easily be snapped like a narwhal tusk.

"Now, are you gonna talk, or am I gonna hafta go to stage 2." DeDe said clearly meaning business.

"Never" he said crying in pain "Kill me now, just end it all right now I can't take it anymore!"

Then DeDe said the most evil thing that anyone could ever say.

" if I killed you I wouldn't be able to watch you suffer..."

I couldn't help but bawl my eyes out, how could anyone be so heartless?

"Now that we've got the pleasantries out of the way I'm gonna subject you to a few more torturous experiences to unleash before I'm satisfied with your pain." She then produced a buzzsaw from her pocket and switched it on letting it whir.

"Final warning: Tell me exactly where your pathetic excuse for a species are NOW."

I awaited in suspense.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

"No." was his final answer.

"Slice knowing ya."

She then jammed the buzzsaw into hos face and began to cut his face off as a plethora of deep red blood came erupting out of his face. I heard his screams of agony as she moved the blade from his cheek to his forehead and continued clockwise until his face was sliced off like a slice of lunch meat!

I tried to look away by burying my face in my hands, but I couldn't even get my mind off of it because of his blood curdling scream.

Finally the room fell silent, I looked up and held back tears, my father was now a faceless corpse laying motionless on the concrete floor in a pool of his own hemoglobin laced bodily liquid.

DeDe turned off the buzzsaw and held it in one hand in the other hand she held the cut off face of our once proud general. She then preceded to lick the blood out of his face! And enjoying it!

"Mmm, it's high in iron." she said. "Now pay close attention Zaí, I'm gonna need a spotter for the seventh inning stretch.

"What?" I said as perplexed as ever.

DeDe then picked up a large sledgehammer and held it over my dads skull.

"Bottom of the ninth, thousands dead, here is the wind up, And the PITCH!"

She brought down the hammer right on top of his skull smashing it open like it was a watermelon!

Blood exploded everywhere like a geyser.

"Woohoo! it's a long drive!"

"Enough! Enough! Please just stop!" I cried in misery.

"No way, if it means I get to watch you suffer I'll keep doing it till the cows come home."

DeDe then left the room dragging dads corpse out with her before stopping dead in her tracks.

"You know what? it would be pretty cruel of me to leave you without so much as a Momento to remember your dead heap of a father by." she then tore off one of his hands and threw it at me, it landed inside the bars of the cage.

"Consider it a little parting gift. Enjoy! she said leaving the room, leaving a bloody trail behind her.

Only now I could see the kind of person DeDe had truly become.

A monster.

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 _(Well was that the gruesomest thing you've ever read or what? Don't worry the next chapter will be more on the brighter side of the spectrum and we'll be getting back to kickass Misery. If I get a few more reviews I might get the next chapter out quicker.)_


	27. What'cha Wanna Find Isn't Easy

Chapter 29: What'cha Wanna Find Isn't Easy

Back with my still loyal friends, they had reached an impasse at the unavoidable thorn forest.

" Scaredy, I hate to rush you but every moment we stay here is another moment we could be getting closer to Zaí." Ruby said seriously.

"Oh my, although I am usually opposed to the very idea of flying, if it is less terrifying than going through this thicket of despair, I'll do it for Zaí." Scaredy said quivering but determined to prove himself.

"That's the spirit Scaredy!" added Iris.

"Don't forget I'll be right beside you all the way." Poe reassured him.

"Well that does reassure me a little." Scaredy admitted.

With that being said Scaredy mustered up all the courage inside him (what little there was to be found) and began to flap his wings until eventually he was airborne. All the while Poe was right beside him encouraging him every second. Eventually they were airborne and out of sight.

"Well now that we've got that out of the way we really don't have much time to waste." Skull Boy said entering the dense thorn forest followed by Ruby, Doom, Iris, Frank & Len.

 _30 minutes later_

The group had now been twisting through the dense underbrush long enough to let their fear get the best of them.

"Gee this sure is a deep thicket." Ruby questioned.

"Hey be lucky you don't have to squeeze two halves of a person through all this." Frank added on.

Eventually they came upon some abnormally large venus fly traps tangled in the branches.

"Hmmm, these look familiar" said Ruby.

"Hey Iris? You wouldn't happen to have any peppermints?" Skull Boy asked hopefully.

"Don't you just love it when you plan ahead for these perilous situations?" Iris said reaching over her shoulder into her bag and pulling out an entire bagful of red and green coloured peppermint swirls.

"This oughta make finding the exit a little less stressful." she said tossing one into the mouth of the nearest carnivorous plant, said plant then chewed it up and gave a goofy smile. Iris then proceded to repeat the process with every flytrap in front of them while making progress through the brambles.

"Hello down there." Called a familiar voice from above. "Perhaps I may be of some assistance."

"Poe, so glad you're here, can you see the way out?" Ruby asked.

"Indubitably my dear Ruby, the flight took quite a lot out of Scaredy, I told him to wait until I returned." Poe informed the fellowship.

With an aerial view of the situation Poe managed to find the least dense and shortest way out. After a good half hour they had finally reached the end.

They found Scaredy was leaning against a tree in a fetal position.

"Gee, Scaredy how you doing?" Skull Boy asked his winged companion.

"Flying was the most terrifying and exhausting thing I have ever done." he admitted.

"I don't doubt that, but when you think about it, you did it and now thanks to your bravery we're that much closer to Zaí." Ruby said encouraging him.

"Yeah/you sure did/Great job Scaredy!" said Frank, Len and Iris congratulating their nocturnal companion.

"Well if that is the case, then I would call it a job well done. Now can we please leave this wretched place?"

"Good point, there's no way of knowing just how long Zaí has left. Onward!" Skull Boy shouted triumphantly.

With that the gang set off once more into the much more unwelcoming part of the unknown that lie before them...


	28. Misery: Unchained

Chapter 30: Misery: Unchained

So to recap: I'm being held against my will, I have a bomb stuck to my hand, I just watched my father get brutally muredered by DeDe, the rest of the gang are en route to my location to spring me from the clink and…

:|

I could've sworn there was something else, what am I forgetting?

Oh yeah Misery! Let's check back in with her.

Misery was making her way through the rubanesque landscape of Gloomsville, deciding to take the first part of her journey on foot. She wore her outfit proudly although it's never easy to run in high heels, but whenever you do people tend to focus more on that then what's really going on.

While she strolled along she was devise a game plan.

In her head she thought.

"Ok I'm gonna have to find a way to get myself to where Zaí is. I think she called her home the Lake of Zombies, but if I recall correctly she said the place was overrun by bloodthirsty witches. I wonder how they'd react to me?"

"What am I thinking?! I can just go marching straight into their town and start asking around where she might be, that's the best way to arouse suspicion. If I'm untrustworthy they're going to be on me faster than the hideous blemishes on great-great-great aunt Malignancy after she contacted the black plague! Bless her soul." Misery said reminiscing about her ill-fated distant relative.

"I guess there's only two options: A.) Disguise myself as a witch to avoid any unwanted attention or B.) Use extreme stealth techniques to keep on the down low." After almost no time at all Misery decided on plan A since plan B had a much bigger margin of error. "Alright I'll need a cloak and some kind of weapon in case my cover is blown."

She then stopped and dug into her wide varray of provisions.

"Ok, gotta find.. Aha! this'll certainly make myself scarce." She said pulling out a dark cloak she had taken in case of rain and/or a sudden snowfall to protect herself from hypothermia. "Now I'll need a weapon." but Misery unfortunately didn't have any weapons in her bag, just the essentials food, water, clothing, survival equipment etc., but nothing that could be used as a weapon. Since her friends were a peaceful gang they really had no use for anything harmful.

"Oh well, guess I'll just have to wing it." Misery told herself putting the cloak back in the bag before putting the bag back on.

"I've gotta go to the Lake of Zombies. Now the question is, how am I going to get there?" She pondered.

"Zaí got here by train, but I highly doubt there's a train headed _towards_ an open battlefield." so she thought hard of a way to get to the Lake of Zombies without attracting any sort of unnecessary attention.

She began pacing the ground pondering her next move.

Suddenly, Misery tripped on an upturned tree root and stumbled forward, much to her surprise a secret tunnel opened up in the ground in front of her and she fell forwards into the hole headfirst.

"Aaaaaaahhhhhh!" she cried out as she descended, sliding down the metal tunnel into the unknown.

the way she needed to go had revealed itself to her, somewhat by accident.

 _(Well, where is Misery sliding to now? Her destiny? Stay tuned readers and find out soon enough.)_


	29. The Underrealm

Chapter 31: The Underrealm

Misery slid all the way down a round metal chute that took her deeper and deeper underground.

As she fell a certain question was on her mind, what's at the end of this tunnel?

soon enough she got her answer.

She landed face first onto a mattress. It wasn't memory foam or anything and it had a couple stains but it was soft enough to break her fall so she really had nothing to complain about.

She got herself up on her feet before assessing her surroundings. Misery had managed to step on a tree root that pushed her straight through to some sort of underground cavern, with only a single pathway that lead elsewhere.

"Well, one things for sure I can't go back the way I came, so I guess the only way I'm gonna find my way out of here is if I go forward and find out what's down here." she told herself.

With that she figured she'd beat around the bush for long enough. She rifled through her bag and found a helmet that held a candle, she grabbed a match and lit the candle before putting the supplies back in and put on her bag and started down the secret passage.

The cavern was made entirely of rock and was nearly pitch black, ideal location for bats, but Misery knew Scaredy was afraid of the dark, so maybe not.

As she pressed deeper she saw a doorway across from a gorgeous looking stream. Her only option was to jump across some stepping stones. Which she knew doing it in high heels was gonna end badly, either slipping, falling, breaking an ankle or knowing her misfortunes all three at once!

"I'm taking off the boots, this jumpsuit shrinks if it gets wet." she proclaimed, it was a smart choice because her outfit was plenty revealing enough already.

She made her way across the steppingstones in her bare feet carefully. enough to make it without falling in, once she reached the other side she placed her footwear back on.

"I had no idea how many obstacles could be in the way in a cavern this deep underground." she said half surprised.

Misery had finally made it to the gateway, it looked heavily locked so she knocked on it. Afterwards a small slot in the gate opened with a pair of eyes peering through.

"Quem e voce? Que esta fazendo aquí?" a male voice spoke.

"Sorry but I don't speak Portuguese." Misery answered.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" they repeated in English.

"I'm just a weary traveler who Stumbled upon your secret entrance and I was wondering if you could help me find the way out of here because I am in a really big hurry." She said choosing each word carefully to play on the gatekeepers good side.

"Well the only other way out of here is through our secluded oasis. So the only way out is through here, but I'm afraid that I can't let you through here without a password."

"Please it's really important someone's life is in danger!" She pleaded on her knees desperately.

"Permit me to ask but _whose_ life is in jeopardy? Give me the full details and I might just be willing to let you pass through." Misery could tell he was serious so she divulged everything to him.

" A 13 year old zombie girl who was sent away from her home to live with us because of the zombie/witch war, she was kidnapped by a witch and she's being held captive against her will I don't know how much time she has left."

"A zombie? Sent away? Live with you? Well no wonder you need help come on in." he said inclined quickly opening the gate.

As Misery entered she saw that the gatekeeper and the rest of the citizens of the hidden sanctuary were zombies.

Misery had found an underground society populated by zombies only about 100 or so but a society nonetheless. As she walked through the village all of the zombies don't stared at her as if they had never seen a banshee like herself before.

As she tried to make her way through zombies all gathered around her curious as to why she would visit them in their hidden inner sanctum.

"Who are you?" Asked one stranger.

"What are you doing here?" Added a female.

"Why are you here?" Asked another. And Misery was bombarded with questions from scared zombies with curiosity. She decided to explain.

"Hello, um.., my name is Misery and I just need to pass through your home to get to the Lake of Zombies to save my friend before she is murdered by the witch armada." She told the crowd nervously since she wasn't a big fan of being in front of large audiences and she wasn't sure if she could call Zaí a 'friend' per se, but she was in peril so personal feelings weren't really appropriate for that situation.

Immediately after finished she enabled curious murmuring from the crowd.

"You're friend is a zombie like us?" a bystander asked.

"Y-yes."

"What was her name?" asked a female zombie.

"Her name was Zaí." she answered. "She was sent away to live in my home in Gloomsville with me and my friends."

"Zaí?" She said alarmed, almost making Misery jump.

"That's my daughters name!"

Misery was surprised by that. "Come closer." She asked, The zombie woman did it she said in case until she was in view she was middle aged around 40 with long dark brown hair, she was missing her left ear and had a large scar on her throat, no doubt from a witch and her right cheek was completely missing and she wore hip hugger green capris with grey trainers that had definitely seen a bit of wear and tear paired with a white T-shirt under an aubergine hoodie.

" If Zaí is your daughter then you must be her mom?"

"My name is Zerelda, I sent her away to protect her from the witches. I thought she would be safe." she finished with tears in her eyes.

"She was, we were all taking good care of her, she was kidnapped when we weren't looking!" Misery tried to explain.

"I'm sorry, it's just, I've already lost my other children to the witches, my marriage is over and if I lose Zaí, I'll have nothing left." Zerelda finished.

"I didn't know, I don't even know anything about your whole war against witches." She said half panicked.

"Well if you want to know the whole story we will have to take you to the elders..."

Misery knew this was something she was going to have to listen to, so she reluctantly agreed.


End file.
